I've watched thousands of hours or vegetables gardening videos. I know. I need to find a hobby. Haha. Amazing that different varieties that pollinate differently. I don't ever remember anyone mentioning the names, how/where they grow and how/where they were developed until I found this channel. . From video game nerd, to book nerd, to garden nerd. If I was a younger man I'd go back to university to study plant/soil/agriculture science. Maybe in my next life. TH-cam is such a great substitute.
You and me both! I sort of feel like this channel and my homestead garden are like a part time, self-directed "going back to school". Anyhow, yeah, I think it's wild how different the conversations around cucumbers are for professional growers vs. home growers. That's always the case but for some reason cucumbers have really been left in the last century for us home growers. There's so much cool stuff out there to take advantage of.
New subscriber! I just discovered this treasure trove of knowledge! I’m excited to see your channel grow. Thank you for sharing your clear passion for gardening! I love your research approach.
I bought a 4-in pot at the local nursery that was a variety called ichiban and is a blend of Persian & Japanese styles. It is so damn good! It has been making a lot of cucumbers and they are absolutely delicious. Next year I'm going to get seeds for that kind.
mow we just need to find these gynoecious or parthenocarpic varieties in our garden centers as seeds (plants they won't have?)... online i saw them in etsy & others.
Thank you for such a detailed video! When looking at seed packets either in stores or online they don't seem to say if they are parthenocarpic and/or gynoecious etc is my issue, any advice? Is there an online source / database that breaks down cucumbers and their specific traits? I'm growing the variety Konsa for the first time as they were given to me. A german variety and now I can say it is only producing female flowers. It would be nice to know straight away if I'm growing a variety and need to leave the male flowers on, remove them, there are none, use them to hand pollinate if they appear etc...stop the madness.. Thanks! 😃
You are most welcome! And unfortunately, the answer is no (or not that I'm aware of). I think if we're being honest, seed packet descriptions are just not usually very helpful because they leave out so much key info. One thing you can do is start by looking at descriptions from seed companies that sell primarily to professional growers. Places like Johnny's, High Mowing, etc. They are typically much, much, much better at including those key characteristics. I'm afraid I'm not sure what the equivalent seed purveyors would be outside of the US =(. Luckily, researching seeds is a nice way to get some gardening in during winter!
I agree completely about seed packets leaving out key details OR even including details that seem like hard rules. For example, 'Plant in Full Sun', when infact the vegetable may still be planted in partial shade or worse and still give a decent crop, I feel it can put newcomers off a bit. It did with me when I first started but now I'm a lot more experimental and using my own intuition more. Thanks again and love the channel..looking forward to seeing you become one of the OG's of youtube gardening 🌱 Greetings from Ireland @@NextdoorHomestead ☘
Since I live in the Ozarks and have plenty of pollinators do I need to be too concerned about pollination problems? Just moved here from Illinois a couple years ago so still learning about my new area.
Good question! Having lots of pollinators is a major plus, no doubt. With enough heat and humidity (which I believe are characteristic of the Ozarks) you may still have issues with successful pollination though. I know that's a strange sentence, but unfortunately one of the potential issues with plants that require pollination is the process can fail with high heat and high humidity. Not to say it will - I don't know the area well enough - just to say that a parthenocarpic variety can be beneficial even in areas with plenty of pollinator insects. Hope that was helpful and not just confusing =)
I had NO idea! Now I'm so confused. I grabbed an interesting (to me) type from Bakers Creek. I've never grown Cucumbers b4. Now I need to figure out what it is...I didn't realize it can be so complicated. I'm pretty mind blown right now. :). Thanks for the video.
Ah, I'm sorry if I confused you! I know this video is sort of just information overload - I just happen to find cucumber types really fascinating. I wouldn't stress it too much your first year. They're actually pretty unique plants in terms of their needs and wants so you'll get a lot of good experience no matter what =) Best of luck!
I'm switching it up a bit! We'll be growing Corinto (which is my favorite) for certain, tasty king Japanese, H-19 little leaf, and probably Burpee bush champion. Honestly, I'll probably add one or two more to the list to keep experimenting - I'd really love to have a longer list of varieties that are easy to recommend to folks.
Thank you for addressing Beit Alpha cucumbers because I was confused. I ordered seeds from two different sources. One was identified as Beit Alpha but the other wasn’t until the seeds arrived. Both plants were very different. The second was compact which is what I was looking for but it never produced any flowers (that could have been a heat related issue). The first one produced long vines and mostly male flowers. I think I will give the second one another try.
No problem! The 'Beit Alpha' naming conventions are just a mess and lead to frustration given how different the varieties are. I hope you find a variety that works for your garden - really makes all the difference.
I just looked up the Beit Alpha variety "Katrina" seeds at Johnny's: packets are sold out and cost $30. 50 seeds is backordered until May 1 and over $47! Almost $1 per seed is INSANE! XD I'll be sticking with the heirloom varieties. Cucumbers are abundant anyway as long as you keep harvesting. Happy 2024 growing season to everyone.
Yeah, seeds from Johnny's are SUPER expensive =(. I buy as much of my seeds as I can from Migardener and dollarseeds.com to save on costs (and because they're awesome), but a lot of Johnny's varieties are worth the price for me because they perform so well and because we eat so much produce. Glad to hear you've got some heirlooms that are working for you!
I’ve struggled to grow cucumbers. My sub-tropical climate in North Florida does them in pretty quickly. Two years ago, I heard about Beit Alpha, and gave it a try. I had more cukes than I knew what to do with. I was thrilled and thought I had cracked the code. The next spring, I was late planting, and they all got fungus, mildew and wilt before they produced the first cuke. I’ll try to get them going next spring before it gets too hot. We’ll see.
Where is best place to buy parthenocarpic cucumbers. I don’t get the bees . I want the small that grocery sells usually a plastic bag.They are about 4-6” long? I am in zone 9 it gets very hot in summer in LA.
Hey William! I suggest Johnny's for parthenocarpic cucumbers as they do a better job of showing you exactly which seeds are parthenocarpic or gynoecious or both. www.johnnyseeds.com/
Went to my local nursery to snag an eggplant for a container but they were out. Picked up a bush cucumber variety instead and now I'm both excited and nervous!
I've watched thousands of hours or vegetables gardening videos. I know. I need to find a hobby. Haha. Amazing that different varieties that pollinate differently. I don't ever remember anyone mentioning the names, how/where they grow and how/where they were developed until I found this channel. . From video game nerd, to book nerd, to garden nerd. If I was a younger man I'd go back to university to study plant/soil/agriculture science. Maybe in my next life. TH-cam is such a great substitute.
You and me both! I sort of feel like this channel and my homestead garden are like a part time, self-directed "going back to school".
Anyhow, yeah, I think it's wild how different the conversations around cucumbers are for professional growers vs. home growers. That's always the case but for some reason cucumbers have really been left in the last century for us home growers. There's so much cool stuff out there to take advantage of.
I had no idea there was so much to know about growing cucumbers. I'm going to have to do some research before planning the garden for next spring!
Hey there, always good to hear from you! Hope your projects are going well 😁
Thanks for watching, it's interesting stuff eh?
New subscriber! I just discovered this treasure trove of knowledge! I’m excited to see your channel grow. Thank you for sharing your clear passion for gardening! I love your research approach.
Thanks for joining up and for the kind words! I hope you like the upcoming videos too =)
I bought a 4-in pot at the local nursery that was a variety called ichiban and is a blend of Persian & Japanese styles. It is so damn good! It has been making a lot of cucumbers and they are absolutely delicious. Next year I'm going to get seeds for that kind.
Wow, they have the first harvest date listed as 35-38 days for that Ichiban variety! Pretty amazing.
I don't remember when I bought it. It was a while ago
Looks like maybe the ichiban variety from ichiban seeds? Cool find!
Oops oops oops sorry sorry. Unagi. I misremembered
55 days according to the tag from the nursery. Grown by Sweetwater nursery. But I will want to buy seeds for it for next year
Who loves cheat codes in the garden ? ←this guy
mow we just need to find these gynoecious or parthenocarpic varieties in our garden centers as seeds (plants they won't have?)... online i saw them in etsy & others.
They're often poorly labeled but most of the big online seed retailers carry multiple varieties that do the trick =)
Best of luck!
Thank you for such a detailed video! When looking at seed packets either in stores or online they don't seem to say if they are parthenocarpic and/or gynoecious etc is my issue, any advice? Is there an online source / database that breaks down cucumbers and their specific traits? I'm growing the variety Konsa for the first time as they were given to me. A german variety and now I can say it is only producing female flowers. It would be nice to know straight away if I'm growing a variety and need to leave the male flowers on, remove them, there are none, use them to hand pollinate if they appear etc...stop the madness.. Thanks! 😃
You are most welcome! And unfortunately, the answer is no (or not that I'm aware of). I think if we're being honest, seed packet descriptions are just not usually very helpful because they leave out so much key info.
One thing you can do is start by looking at descriptions from seed companies that sell primarily to professional growers. Places like Johnny's, High Mowing, etc. They are typically much, much, much better at including those key characteristics. I'm afraid I'm not sure what the equivalent seed purveyors would be outside of the US =(.
Luckily, researching seeds is a nice way to get some gardening in during winter!
I agree completely about seed packets leaving out key details OR even including details that seem like hard rules. For example, 'Plant in Full Sun', when infact the vegetable may still be planted in partial shade or worse and still give a decent crop, I feel it can put newcomers off a bit. It did with me when I first started but now I'm a lot more experimental and using my own intuition more. Thanks again and love the channel..looking forward to seeing you become one of the OG's of youtube gardening 🌱 Greetings from Ireland @@NextdoorHomestead ☘
Since I live in the Ozarks and have plenty of pollinators do I need to be too concerned about pollination problems? Just moved here from Illinois a couple years ago so still learning about my new area.
Good question! Having lots of pollinators is a major plus, no doubt.
With enough heat and humidity (which I believe are characteristic of the Ozarks) you may still have issues with successful pollination though. I know that's a strange sentence, but unfortunately one of the potential issues with plants that require pollination is the process can fail with high heat and high humidity. Not to say it will - I don't know the area well enough - just to say that a parthenocarpic variety can be beneficial even in areas with plenty of pollinator insects.
Hope that was helpful and not just confusing =)
You just totally blew my mind.
Haha, yay! Glad it was interesting. I love talking cucumbers =)
I had NO idea! Now I'm so confused. I grabbed an interesting (to me) type from Bakers Creek. I've never grown Cucumbers b4. Now I need to figure out what it is...I didn't realize it can be so complicated. I'm pretty mind blown right now. :). Thanks for the video.
Ah, I'm sorry if I confused you! I know this video is sort of just information overload - I just happen to find cucumber types really fascinating.
I wouldn't stress it too much your first year. They're actually pretty unique plants in terms of their needs and wants so you'll get a lot of good experience no matter what =)
Best of luck!
Awesome video!! Thanks. What varieties are you growing this year? (2024)
I'm switching it up a bit! We'll be growing Corinto (which is my favorite) for certain, tasty king Japanese, H-19 little leaf, and probably Burpee bush champion. Honestly, I'll probably add one or two more to the list to keep experimenting - I'd really love to have a longer list of varieties that are easy to recommend to folks.
Thank you for addressing Beit Alpha cucumbers because I was confused. I ordered seeds from two different sources. One was identified as Beit Alpha but the other wasn’t until the seeds arrived. Both plants were very different. The second was compact which is what I was looking for but it never produced any flowers (that could have been a heat related issue). The first one produced long vines and mostly male flowers. I think I will give the second one another try.
No problem! The 'Beit Alpha' naming conventions are just a mess and lead to frustration given how different the varieties are. I hope you find a variety that works for your garden - really makes all the difference.
I just looked up the Beit Alpha variety "Katrina" seeds at Johnny's: packets are sold out and cost $30. 50 seeds is backordered until May 1 and over $47! Almost $1 per seed is INSANE! XD I'll be sticking with the heirloom varieties. Cucumbers are abundant anyway as long as you keep harvesting. Happy 2024 growing season to everyone.
Yeah, seeds from Johnny's are SUPER expensive =(. I buy as much of my seeds as I can from Migardener and dollarseeds.com to save on costs (and because they're awesome), but a lot of Johnny's varieties are worth the price for me because they perform so well and because we eat so much produce.
Glad to hear you've got some heirlooms that are working for you!
I’ve struggled to grow cucumbers. My sub-tropical climate in North Florida does them in pretty quickly. Two years ago, I heard about Beit Alpha, and gave it a try. I had more cukes than I knew what to do with. I was thrilled and thought I had cracked the code. The next spring, I was late planting, and they all got fungus, mildew and wilt before they produced the first cuke. I’ll try to get them going next spring before it gets too hot. We’ll see.
If you want to take notes he left a handy tool in the description. Thanks for that.
Where is best place to buy parthenocarpic cucumbers. I don’t get the bees . I want the small that grocery sells usually a plastic bag.They are about 4-6” long? I am in zone 9 it gets very hot in summer in LA.
Hey William! I suggest Johnny's for parthenocarpic cucumbers as they do a better job of showing you exactly which seeds are parthenocarpic or gynoecious or both. www.johnnyseeds.com/
Went to my local nursery to snag an eggplant for a container but they were out. Picked up a bush cucumber variety instead and now I'm both excited and nervous!
Fun! We actually planted a couple bush cucumber seeds a few days ago to mix it up a bit. Best of luck =)
@@NextdoorHomestead Same to you! Just moved on to your growing cucs in containers video :)
thank you so much for such a compendium of knowledge on Cuces!
No problem! I find them so fascinating.
Hope it was helpful 😁